When their teenage daughter Julie is killed by a hit and run driver her parents react in totally different ways. The father Lawrence, who is a committed medievalist, had worshipped his daughter as the feminine ideal of purity, now sees himself as a knight avenger determined to destroy the killer driver. He becomes involved in sabotaging motorists' cars. The wife Moira seeks to heighten public awareness of the misery such crimes cause. When Julie's diary is discovered its revelations' cause an irreparable split between the parents. In prison the car driver Hamilton (nicknamed Eggs) Brown is saved from homosexual rape by a black weightlifter. When his friend is to be transferred to another prison they plot an "accident" which disables the homosexual predator. Hamilton has a good singing voice and is encouraged to develop a solo singing career by the music teacher who runs the prison choir. This leads him into Gospel music and he becomes a Christian. On release he marries an Northern Irish girl and settles in Belfast with her to avoid Lawrence and his vigilantes who are seeking to harm him. But finally in Ireland Hamilton and Lawrence's paths cross with tragic results